08 May 2010

A very special greeting to three very special mothers: my Mom (of course), Mamy (my husband's mom and mine now too), and Lola Pu (my paternal grandmother, who is a very well-loved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and mother figure). How I miss you all and wish that we could celebrate today together!

When I was in elementary school, my Mother's Day cards were full of praises and promises:

Dear ♥ ♥ ♥ Mommy ♥ ♥ ♥,

You are the BEST MOM. I will love you forever and not make faces when you tell me to eat my vegetables. And I will clean my room every day from now on. PROMISE.

♥♥♥ xoxo,

Cookie

your BEST daughter, ha ha

(Seriously, the 'ha ha' would be tacked on at the end there)

I also went through a 'creative' phase that involved recipe cards:

Recipe for the best mom ever

¼ cup kisses

½ cup hugs

1 cup laughter

2 cups love

2 Tbsp tough love

Mix everything together and bake for some amount of time (probably the number of years corresponding to my age at the time).

Mom and I are now separated by a national border and a time zone, but we talk to each other regularly, at least once a week, and make it a point to see each other at least once a year. Since becoming a mother myself, I have grown in appreciation and understanding of all she has done and continues to do.

My Mother's Day greetings have gotten a bit better, but not by much: for some mysterious reason I'm completely incapable of giving my mom anything serious and completely loving for Mother's Day. It's shameful, really.

So before I mess this up royally, I'll just repeat something I told her once, a long while back (it wasn't on Mother's Day, though):

"Mom, if I could go back to before I was born, and if I were given the chance to pick my mother from all the mothers in the world, I would still pick you."

It seems sappy, and in fact when I told her that years ago, I think she actually cried - but it was the best time ever to say something like that because we had had some big disagreement a day before, and she was still raging mad at me. I tell you, that got me on the FAST lane back to her good graces.

What in the world? I just messed up royally, didn't I? I'm so mom-affection-impaired. This is like watching a train wreck happen. All kidding aside though, I really meant it then, and I mean it even more now. My mom rocks.

I'm going to stop now ... but before that, I made strawberry shortcake in honour of MOM.

It's one of her favourite desserts.

And don't worry, Mom, I will make this for you when you come in a few weeks. I'll even hand whip the cream.

Scatter over the flour mixture and pulse about 15 times, until the mixture resembles coarse meal: 8 Tbsp butter, cold, in ½” cubes

Transfer this mixture into a medium bowl.

Mix in a measuring cup: 1 large egg ½ cup buttermilk

Pour this liquid mixture over the flour mixture and combine with a spoon or spatula until the mixture starts to come together. Turn it out onto a floured work surface and knead very lightly until you have a cohesive mass.

Pat the dough into a 9x6 inch rectangle (¾” thick). Using a floured 2 ¾” round cutter, cut out 6 pieces. Gather the dough scraps and form a larger round (or 2 smaller ones). Lay these 1” apart on a baking sheet.

Bake in a preheated 425°F oven for 12-14 minutes, until the biscuits are golden brown.

Let them cool on the sheet, over a rack, for 10 minutes.

Prepare the whipped cream
Beat with a whisk, either by hand or with an electric mixer, until soft peaks form: ¾ cup heavy whipping cream

Assemble the shortcakes
When the shortcakes are still warm but cool enough to handle, split them in half like a burger bun. (This can be done gently with your fingers, or with a knife). Spoon berries over each cake bottom, followed by a nice portion of whipped cream. Cover with the cake top. Serve immediately.

5
comments:

Wow! I got teary eyed reading that verse! Your strawberry shortcake sounds yummy! What if I don't have a food processor? Can I use the good 'ole kitchen aide? And is there a substiture for Buttermilk? Don't think I can find that here! -patty =)

Hey Patty! Thanks for stopping by! I think that this could be made even by hand (by cutting the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter, or by pressing/pinching the butter with the flour with your fingertips, or even just with 2 knives). Or, little cold cubes of butter with the flour, on stir speed on the KitchenAid would probably also work. The goal is to have the flour/butter mixture resemble coarse meal (so there should still be solid bits of butter after you've mixed it into the flour).

As for the buttermilk - I don't always have buttermilk, so sometimes I go with the classic substitute (1 Tbsp lemon juice, topped off with enough milk to make 1 cup total; let stand for a few minutes until the milk thickens/curdles a bit). For this particular recipe, the original actually calls for cream - so you could just use plain old cream instead of buttermilk.